Tuesday, August 28, 2012

How to explain a brief week’s insight to a new place, new people, new workplace, new home for the next two years?  How to explain the feeling of having completed two-thirds of the training that I receive before I am released to a village for two years?  How to explain the fact that 10 days from now I will be “officially sworn in” as a Peace Corps volunteer? 

Time has certainly felt different this past month and a half than it did this time last year.  I remember thinking, “how am I going to have time to sleep?”  The constant challenge of balancing my daily activities, priorities, and mental space still exists.  However, I have noticed that the motor behind finding the harmony within a day is completely self-motivated, and the melody can be just as pleasant with a slower tempo… and just as rewarding with a significant amount of sleep.  The beat of my daily life over these past few months has been anything but regular.  With the ebb and flow that is a day, week, month, hour, it is curious to examine the passing of any length of time.  Somehow, the concept of days or weeks has transformed from a calculation of hours and minutes to a broader balance of energy and goals. 

Perhaps the best way to explain is quantitatively – Over this past month and a half, I have completed about 100 hours of language training, 50 hours of cross-cultural training, 30 hours of technical training, and many other hours of training related to how to live safely in Togo.  Monday-Friday, I attend class from 7:30am-5:00pm.  Mondays and Thursdays I have French tutoring 5:30pm-6:00pm.  Saturday I have class until 12:30pm.  Sundays I take some time to myself, attend church with my host family, work on my French, and complete assignments for the upcoming week. 

And now some details about my post visit – I met most of the local authorities (chief, mayor, county-head, police staff, military personnel, hospital workers, health clinic staff, school director, and other potential work partners), I visited a smaller village outside of my “grand ville” where I visited a health clinic and monitored the progress and upkeep of 24 new latrines (a project with the Red Cross), I visited a cashew factory (who knew, right?), and I started the process of making a new house and new town a home.  I am ready to return.